New mayor and deputy mayor elected in Fingal

CLLR Anthony Lavin (FG) has been elected as the new Mayor of Fingal.

Cllr Lavin, who represents the Howth-Malahide Local Electoral Area (LEA), has been a member of Fingal County Council since 2011. He is originally from Swinford, County Mayo, and is a Customer Care Manager with AXA Insurance.

In his acceptance  speech the new mayor identified housing, MetroLink and the development of Dublin Airport as areas he wanted to work on.

“It is truly an honour to be sitting here as Mayor of Fingal,” he said.

Grainne Maguire, an independent councillor based in Balbriggan, was elected as deputy mayor.

Cllr Maguire, who represents the Balbriggan Electoral Area (LEA), has been an elected representative for the past 10 years and succeeded her mother, May McKeon, on the council in 2013.  Her mother had been an elected representative almost 40 years.

Cllr Lavin defeated Cllr Paul Mulville (Social Democrats) and Cllr Sandra Kavanagh (Solidarity) in the election for mayor while Cllr Maguire defeated Cllr Lorna Nolan (Independent) in the election for deputy mayor.  

Tributes were paid to the outgoing mayor, Cllr Mary McCamley. Fingal County Council chief executive Paul Reid presented Cllr McCamley with a commemorative medal and a photograph album recording her year in office.  

Cllr McCamley thanked Cllr Adrian Henchy for his support as deputy mayor during the year and paid tribute to everybody who had contributed to making her year in office a success.

Tributes were also paid to Cllr Ken Farrell (Labour) who is stepping down from the council having been first elected in 1985.